Professionalizing to make it professional. It sounds like a play on words, but it’s not. Italian basketball would like to be one hundred percent professional already today, but it hasn’t actually yet invested enough in professionalization.
This is why the Trieste basketball supports the position of President Gandini, even though he knows that, for everyone, it will be a complex undertaking to apply it quickly and in all its elements, especially in an economic situation like the current one.
“Professionalizing basketball – declared the president Mario Ghiacci – in fact, it means setting rules on access to the top flight capable of guaranteeing the solidity of the companies, and this not only in economic terms, but also – and I would like to say above all – in terms of human capital. Allianz Pallacanestro Trieste is working with determination: having acquired employees and collaborators it invests to professionalize every sector, so much so that over time it has become a resource in terms of developing job opportunities in the area. To this is added the direct management of the Allianz Dome: a further responsibility, which requires investments and strategy, but which guarantees a return in image, diversification, further development possibilities. A choice that must be assessed as an element of responsibility and strategic capacity of the sports clubs, a choice that must underlie the guarantee of a minimum number of seats per audience for the entire system in each sports hall.“.
“The ongoing reflection and the necessary revision of the current rules aim to give guarantees to potential sponsors and raise the level of quality of the whole system. This is what we are looking forward to, and my conviction is that on the one hand we should not worry too much about the risk of seeing a decrease in the number of teams at the start in the championship because the game is worth the candle if we want to give new authority to our system, and on the other hand, we must ask for and obtain protection and respect for having, in this very complex year, made investments and made enormous efforts to secure companies and our sport“.
“There is a further element that I would like to underline, and bring as a contribution to the current debate underway – concluded Ghiacci – I believe that in order to achieve the results we set ourselves, it is necessary to invest a lot in the youth sector, a breeding ground for new athletes, but also for new fans. Only by building an inclusive system can we create new audiences, and the new generations – with their way of communicating, of experiencing sport globally – are our first audience, which we absolutely need to help increase our credibility.”.
Trieste Basketball Press Office
